RYAN SHORTHOUSE: Young people should start treating us geeks with the respect we deserve

So I’m talking to a girl I quite like at a friend’s birthday. Erm, how to break the ice? I ask: 'Did you see the event of last week then?'

Excitedly, she replies: 'It was fantastic - so much suspense.'

Good choice of conversation Shorthouse. You knew she’d be into that type of thing. She continues: 'And everyone was really stunning, weren’t they?'

Ok, very weird - I was not expecting that comment. A little disorientated, I say: 'Well, I wouldn’t really say that.' Quickly, she attacks: 'How can you say that? I mean, they’re some of the most beautiful people in the world.'

Brains and beauty: Kate Winslet is praised for her looks, while University Challenge winner Gail Trimble was vilified for her intelligence.

I’m puzzled. Are we talking about the same thing here? Something’s telling me we’re not. 'The Oscars,' she says. 'What are you talking about?'

Panic. What do I say? She’s already annoyed with me. Now she’ll think I’m a loser. Shall I lie? No, be honest. Sheepishly, I respond: 'The, erm, the final of University Challenge.'

Right there. Our chat ended right at that moment. I go red. She shifts her eyes to the right, slowly drinks her wine. Silence. Painful silence. She’s thinking I’m a loser. She swiftly escapes to join her friends. I’m left alone, embarrassed.

But, hang on a minute. Why am I ashamed that I watch University Challenge? Embarrassment turns to anger. Why should I blush over this being the highlight of my Monday night? I’m proud to have watched every episode, proud to snort over-enthusiastically at Paxman’s belittling of the contestants, proud to sometimes get two or three answers a round.

But I know this pride is futile among many of my peers. The accepted attitude among too many young people is this: don’t be geeky.

It’s just not cool. Don’t get excited about facts. Don’t spend your time reading. Doing quizzes on a Saturday night is not done the thing. And, whatever you do, do not mention University Challenge when chatting up a girl.

You see, ‘geeks’ are pitied - as they are on countless teen films like Super Bad or American Pie - or, worse, bullied. Having high intelligence means being different, and being different is bait for bullies.

Just look at the way super-bright Gail Trimble, the champion of the triumphant Corpus Christi University Challenge team, was attacked on blogs this week. Poor girl. It’s been nearly ten years since she left school and still the bullies are out to get her.

Answering two thirds of her team’s answers, this 26-year-old should be an inspiration to legions of young people. But instead she is dubbed smug and condescending, a snob.

More young people aspire to be good-looking and celebrity-like than an egghead. And although this anti-intelligence attitude is not true of all young people, and to a certain extent it diminishes with age, even now our universities are under threat.

The London School of Economics, University College London and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London have set up a 'Miss University London' beauty contestant. Over 400 girls applied.

A survey of 11 year old girls in West London showed that they would rather aspire to have the perfect tan and size zero bodies above big brains.

And a frightening four in ten teenage girls want plastic surgery.

Poll

Would you rather be clever or beautiful?

Clever

Beautiful

Would you rather be clever or beautiful?

Clever20141 votes

Beautiful6745 votes

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Physical beauty is more respected, more aspired to, than intelligence. This is profoundly anti-feminist: women’s aspirations are based on how they are viewed by men.

Paris Hilton, not Gail Trimble, is a twenty-first century role model. How sad. This is a girl who has become famous for peroxide blonde hair, non-stop partying and releasing a porn video.

Her latest concoction, a programme called 'Paris Hilton’s British Best Friend', sees twenty-something women bitch and brawl to be her closest pal. Contestant Laura, the token intellectual who likes libraries and Shakespeare, was booted off and dismissed by Paris as 'boring.' Perhaps considerate Laura deserved it: for even considering going on such a terrible programme.

As girls rate physical beauty more, they glorify good-looking men. So men buy moisturisers and dress in the best designer clothes to attract ‘fit’ girls. The rise of the metrosexual man is surely due to celebrity-obsessed girls. Geeky boys, meanwhile, are left stranded: girls avoid them, boys bully them.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be good looking. But why is it generally rated more highly than intelligence? Beyonce and Kate Winslet combine both. But without their beauty, they’d be a flop with most teenagers. Find me a fifteen year old who aspires to be like Tilda Swinton.

Intelligence is not a necessity for most of Beyonce’s and Kates’s younger fans. But their intelligence is of course essential for how many Grammys and Oscars they win. Intelligence, not beauty, will ensure greater personal success in the long-term.

More fundamentally, intelligence is more of a social good than beauty.

Many people derive satisfaction from someone who is beautiful. But we have derived enormous technological, medical and social advances from brainpower.

Young people should start treating ‘geeks’ with the respect they deserve.